Philadelphia scandal jolts belief U.S. bishops fixed problem

It's been nine years since the clergy sex-abuse scandal broke in the United States -- in Boston -- and since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declared zero tolerance for child-abusing priests and vowed to root out the problem.

Yet allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clerics across the nation and the world continue to surface.

The latest eruption is in Philadelphia, where three priests and a Catholic-school teacher were charged in February with raping and sexually assaulting young boys from the 1970s to the 2000s.

A monsignor, accused of shielding the men from authorities even though he likely knew about multiple allegations against them, has been charged with child endangering.

The charges follow grand jury reports claiming that 63 current and former priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been credibly accused of sexually molesting minors.

So far, 29 priests have been suspended by the archdiocese in recent months, pending outcomes of investigations.

Historian David O'Brien, who teaches courses in faith and culture at the University of Dayton, said Catholics initially believed that the bishops' zero-tolerance policy -- which included child-protection guidelines and the creation of a national committee to advise them on abuse matters -- would effectively handle the problem.

But that belief, he said, changed when the Philadelphia story hit.

"Philadelphia is a real shock," said O'Brien. "It has caused people to ask whether the bishops have been successful in dealing with the problem.

"Priests were not removed in Philadelphia until this last grand jury report," he said. "The courts and civil lawsuits have really forced this thing into the open."

O'Brien said there needs to be a well-funded national organization independent of the church hierarchy to monitor how effectively each diocese uncovers and reports credible accusations of sexual abuses.

"Is the church's response perfect? No, it is not," Rossetti said in a telephone interview. "But it is light-years better than what it used to be. The abuse rates have plummeted."

Regarding Philadelphia, the monsignor questioned whether the archdiocese followed the bishops' guidelines.

"The charter still relies on people to follow it," he said. "Philadelphia obviously made serious errors and they're trying to correct those errors. If they had followed the procedures appropriately, this wouldn't have happened."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently released its eighth annual report on its child-protection guidelines.

Data posted on the bishops' website show that last year 501 victims nationwide came forward for the first time with credible allegations of sexual abuse against 405 deacons and priests.

That number of accused offenders represents a 17 percent increase from the number of offenders identified the year before. Most of the offenders are dead, defrocked or suspended, the report shows.

The report does not publish names or identify dioceses. Findings in the survey are based on self-reporting by each diocese.

The report also said that in 2010 the U.S. Catholic Church spent more than $172 million on child-abuse matters, including court settlements and child- protection programs.

Reports of the clergy sex-abuse scandals in both Boston and Philadelphia allege that church leaders tried to cover up pedophile attacks by moving accused clerics from parish to parish and not reporting them to civil authorities.

The church hierarchy, critics say, took action only after prosecutors exposed the cover-ups.

"They did it because their backs were against the wall," said Sister Maureen Paul Turlish, a Notre Dame nun and victims' advocate in Delaware. "They did not do it for altruistic reasons."

Turlish was part of a successful movement in Delaware to lift the statute of limitations on child sex abuse for two years, giving victims of any age a chance to file civil actions against perpetrators.

She is now engaged in a movement in Pennsylvania to do the same.

"The laws regarding sex abuse give more protection to the offenders than to the children," said Turlish. "People who committed these horrible, heinous acts were protected and they escaped. The statute of limitations in most states ran out."

A proposal in the Ohio Legislature five years ago to lift the statute of limitations on child-abuse cases for one year failed in the House.

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